<p>Prompt:
"What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?"</p>
<p>Do you guys think a non-written down, recited speech would be OK for this? If not, is there any way I could work it so that it would be?</p>
<p>Is the non-written speech somewhat famous? Would an Admissions Officers have heard of it? For example, Conan OBrian gave what many consider to be the best commencement speech ever several years back at Dartmouth. Maybe a transcript of the speech exists, but most know the speech from a Youtube video that went viral. Do you mean something like that? Or, is the speech something you heard that an Admissions Officer wouldn’t be familiar with?</p>
<p>Definitely not famous… so a speech that an admissions officer wouldn’t be familiar with. </p>
<p>Do you think if I answered the question saying “her story” is what challenged me, then it’d be okay? (and then clarified that it was relayed orally in speech form). </p>
<p>I’m just afraid literature only refers to written work. But I guess if she was reading her script, even if it was presented to me rather than myself reading it, then it is still a work of literature, right?</p>
<p>I think literature does refer to the written word. That said, you might be given a “free pass” if you used a speech by Martin Luther King or Barack Obama or even a famous play, poem, or film script, but to use an obscure speech, that no one else has heard, and that has not been published – that is not literature. IMHO it’s pushing the envelope too far, especially when you could easily think of something within bounds.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I agree. Thanks for the help, Gibby. :)</p>